Utility Warehouse

[Beezknees]

Is this the latest MLM? I keep seeing people advertising it on the local facebook page. I wouldn't go near it with a bargepole but do these companies actually save people money like they say?

They're not new, I used them 12 years ago when I moved into a flat and they were already the utilities provider. Couldn't be bothered to shop around so no idea how they compare to others.

We've been with them for 11/12 years (my parents a couple years longer than that).
We find them excellent x

Yep mlm. Been around years though.

It’s been operating as an MLM for a long time. The only way to make decent money is to recruit a downline, the larger the better. The emphasis on recruitment opens the door for all sorts of lies about the income opportunity and all sorts of lies about the money it will save customers.

Many report that it started off looking like a good deal but ended up costing them dearly. I know someone whose elderly father was battered into UW by the daughter of a neighbour. When he died his children discovered he’d been paying more for utilities in his tiny one bed flat than his own daughter paid for a five bed house with four people resident.

Of course it won an award from Which? Magazine, but that’s because many of its customers are also selling it, so of course they will vote tactically. Which? Have now acknowledge this.

One to swerve while it insists on MLM.

We are with them. Didn't realise. We switched as they were the cheapest. Oh dear

They provide our utilities and broadband and I think they're really good. No idea about the selling part of it as I'm just a customer.

I think the prices are pretty competitive and the service is better than others we were with before.

Like you, I thought UW was a dodgy company. So much so that I walked past them and went to other energy companies with shite services for over 5 years. BIG MISTAKE! I have used British Gas, the best of the bunch, Octopus, E.on and Bulb... I have had problems with all of them. But I avoided Utility Warehouse like the plague because of all the badmouthing and incorrect assumptions that other people had of the company. Until that is, I got chatting to a random stranger... All I can say is, I understand if people think it's a dodgy pyramid scheme from way back when, it's not. Especially if they haven't taken the time to understand what the company is (discount supplier), what it does and how it works. I thought so too, I really did. 🙈

Here's the difference:

What is the difference between Pyramid Scheme and Multi-Level Marketing Company?
Multi-level marketing companies (MLMs) are legitimate businesses with the goal of moving products to consumers. On the other hand, in a pyramid scheme (illegal in the UK), the income usually comes from recruiting new members who must pay an entrance fee or startup cost, which is used to recruit new members.

So no, it's not a pyramid scheme. Yes it does use MLM, but many many companies do. MLM is also known as also known as network marketing, direct selling, and referral marketing. These other well known companies work in the same way, and do not get the same slating as UW:

• Juice Plus*
• Avon*
• Neal's Yard*
• Usbourne Publishing*
• Kleeneze
• Ann Summers*
• Oriflame
• Tupperware
• Younique
• Herbal Life
• Forever Living*

*Companies I buy from.

These are but a few... Just because a company use MLM as a business model, it shouldn't instantly make them off limits as a scam. Otherwise Ben Fogal, Which, USwitch, would not recommend them and give them many awards in the process. Many people use their UW business as an excellent side hustle to improve the quality of their lives, and save people money in the process. Is that such a bad thing?
I know I'd rather be paying £214 for my gas, electric, mobile phone and Full Fibre, instead of £297 in just one bill, not 4. But I do understand not everyone wants to save money with a company they have the wrong impression of.

@TheWorldisGoingMad there is so much wrong with what you’re saying. The Competition and Markets Authority define a pyramid scheme as any trading scheme that relies upon recruitment rather than the sale of a product or service. As for Ben Fogle - what does he know? He’s just paid to promote. Which? has now acknowledged a problem with the way UW is sold and there are entire social media sites and pages dedicated to complaints about the miss-selling and coercion people have experienced by UW sellers. Utility companies are a notorious nightmare but UW is dodgy in an extra way.

What happens in MLM is that product changes hands within the scheme, with the money passed up the chain and the rewards for uplines based on the purchases of downlines not on their sales to real customers outside the scheme. I challenge you to ask every one of the companies you name how much of their revenue comes from the sale of product to people who are not involved in the scheme - they can’t or won’t tell you.

The reality is that people are being sold a lie. Income claims are rife and miss-selling of product is rife. Independent research of these business has demonstrated very clearly that 99.6% of all sign ups to MLM lose money once expenses are factored in. The tiny (dwindling) percentage of people who make money in MLM do so by recruiting large downlines. I am struggling to see the difference between a pyramid scheme which people pay to join and a pyramid scheme where people pay to join and end up with a product.

BTW Mumsnet takes a dim view of MLM stealth promotion.